Social Studios turns your Facebook feed into a TV show

Lots of startups have tried to take the videos your friends share on Facebook and turn them into some kind of social video programming, but no one has quite done it like Social Studios. The Los Angeles and Israel-based startup has teamed up with actress Noa Tishby to actually produce an Entertainment Tonight-like show that features videos, status updates and photos from your Facebook timeline.

Your Show, which launched Monday night, may not have the most compelling title, but the idea behind it is interesting: Social Studios CEO Anat Amibar told me Monday that she got the inspiration for the show when a colleague of hers bought a smart TV a little more than a year ago. They tried out the TV’s Facebook app and immediately thought that this concept can be done better. “Facebook on a smart TV is like an old mobile version of Facebook stretched to 55 inches,” Amibar said.

Check out the company’s video demo:

At the core of the company’s offering is a Facebook app that takes data from your news feed, mixes it with pre-produced segments featuring Tishby, and spits it out as a video lasting around seven minutes. Videos shared by your friends are teased, and Amibar told me that viewers always have an option to watch the entire clip, or jump to a post to dive in deeper.

She also said that the company has already recorded dozens of clips with Tishby to give the show a different look and feel every day, and added: “Of course, the content itself is different every day.”

So how does watching Your Show feel like? I got to play with the latest episode, personalized to my news feed, on Monday, and have to say that I couldn’t quite make up my mind about it. The novelty factor was fun, sure, but I can also see this getting annoying pretty soon. And do I really need a human host if all she does is segue in vague terms to some photo my cousin posted online?

However, I could see this kind of programming become part of something bigger. What if the show actually presented you with real entertainment news, only to mix in some personal news every now and then? Or what if you got a news program that’s interrupted by curated hyperlocal videos?

As for Social Studios, Amibar told me that the company is already thinking about additional show formats, but she wouldn’t tell me what those will be about. She did reveal that her team is currently working on an iPad app, and that there are plans to bring the Your Show experience to smart TVs, possibly with help from outside partners.

This story was corrected 9:45pm to clarify that Noa Tishby is not an employee of Social Studios, but rather an advisor to the company and contributor to the show.